Gray County History 1922

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Gray County History Written in 1922

Gray County. This county was one of the last of the Panhandle counties to be organized, a county government being instituted in 1902.

The population of the county in 1880 was 56 ; in 1890, 203 ; in 1900, 480; in 1910, 3,405, and in 1920, 4,663. The Kansas Southern division of the Santa Fe System was constructed across the northwest part of the county during the latter '80s, and in 1903 the Rock Island Line was built along the southern part of the county. The county seat is LeFors, [Pampa became the county seat in 1928, a few years after this was written.] no town at this time as it is off the railroad and has no accommodations, while an important town is Pampa, located in the northwest part of the county, on the Santa Fe Railway line in the great wheat growing belt. It is probably the largest wheat shipping point on that line, having shipped in 1919 about 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and a large amount of maize and kaffir corn and other products. There are also large shipments of cattle made from this point.

Pampa has a population of about 1,200 inhabitants. The school facilities are excellent and a high school building, valued at about $100,000, is being completed. There are three churches, two banks, the First National and the Gray County State Bank, and a dozen mercantile establishments and five large elevators, several machine shops and tractor repair works. Pampa has the distinction of having the largest tractor demonstration and tractor school in the state of Texas each year.

Gray County has several state highways. Highway No. 33 connects with Highway No. 12, leading west from Elk City, Oklahoma, at the state line, thence west to Wheeler, Mobeetie, Pampa, Whitedeer, Panhandle, Amarillo, Canyon, Hereford, Farwell and across New Mexico back into El Paso, Texas. The intracounty state highway, to be known as the C-P-S., leads off from No. 5 at Clarendon, north to Pampa, crossing No. 33 here, and north to Spearman, crossing the Canadian River at the old adobe walls fighting grounds, and connects with the Oklahoma State Highway at Guyman, Oklahoma, which runs north to Lamar and Denver, Colorado. The A. B. O. Pass Highway has its beginning at the Abo Pass Mountains in New Mexico, following state highway No. 33 from Farwell. Amarillo to Pampa, and turns north and follows the IntraCounty State Highway to Miami, Canadian, and on to Kansas City, Missouri.

Allan Reed, another town in the southern part of the county, on the Rock Island Railroad, has one bank, good schools and churches and the Postal Highway passes through the town from Oklahoma City to Amarillo.

The town of McLean, in the southeast part of the county, on the Rock Island, has two banks, excellent schools, several churches. It has good business houses, is a great shipping point, is surrounded by a fine farming country and ships a large tonnage of watermelons and fruits.

In 1903 the assessed valuation in Gray County was $1,244,000 ; in 1913, $3,564,083 ; in 1920, $4,222,723. Agricultural progress is reflected in the increase of improved land from about 9,000 acres in 1900 to about 100,000 in 1920. The total area of the county is 575,360 acres. The last enumeration reported 26,902 cattle, 6,132 horses and mules. Considerable interest is being manifested in horticulture, and the last enumeration reported about 12,000 orchard fruit trees and a number of small vineyards and other fruits. - History of Texas, 1922, by W. Barrett Travis.